Once again, applications to the College are up and the selectivity rate is down as the Class of 2012 continues a trend that has been going on for more than a decade. Applications rose by 5.7 percent, to 19,116, for roughly 1,050 places in the Class of 2012. The College’s overall admit rate, or selectivity, was 8.68 percent.

College students were well-represented among the winners of several national and international fellowships.

Columbia has announced today major changes in the financial aid it provides to students and their families. Beginning in the fall of 2008, student loans will be replaced by grants across all income bands, parental contributions for families with incomes below $60,000 will be eliminated, and families with incomes between $60,000 and $100,000 will have their parental contributions significantly reduced.

Frontiers of Science, the newest component of the College’s Core Curriculum, has been awarded a $200,000 grant from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

The historical profession lost a giant with the passing of John A. Garraty, the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. The author and editor of numerous American history books, Garraty was one of the most prolific historians of his generation. I worked as his last research assistant, and I once asked him the secret of his prolificness, as if expecting him to reveal some secret formula or regimen. In addition to his writing, he had a family, taught classes, vacationed at a Paris apartment and even ran the New York City marathon. Amidst all this activity, he still wrote copiously. “Where do you find the time?” I asked.